As we work to bring even more value to our audience, we’ve made important changes for those who receive Ad Age with our compliments. As of November 15, 2016 we will no longer be offering full digital access to AdAge.com. However, we will continue to send you our industry-leading print issues focused on providing you with what you need to know to succeed.

If you’d like to continue your unlimited access to AdAge.com, we invite you to become a paid subscriber. Get the news, insights and tools that help you stay on top of what’s next.

Both, however, will wait until Academy Awards day, March 24, before the first movie titles from DVD's biggest software champion, Time Warner's Warner Home Video, arrive.

Panasonic appears to be the biggest spender on the hardware side, with an estimated '97 budget of $15 million to $17 million; that matches what the company spent on all consumer products last year.

Bob Greenberg, VP-general manager for Panasonic's Communications Division, said the effort will be Panasonic's biggest ever to launch a product.

Panasonic's TV schedule will lead up to placement on the Academy Awards telecast. Grey Advertising, New York, is the agency.

SPENDING UNCLEAR

Toshiba plans a multimillion-dollar TV, radio and print campaign from Ferrell Calvillo Communications, New York, but total spending is unclear.

Both helped create the DVD standard-and both take credit.

Mr. Greenberg hopes the early ad blitz will give Panasonic the lead in DVD sales, generating incremental sales for TVs and related home-theater products.

"It is a booster rocket for all of the other things we make," he said.

DVD players, priced from $499 to $1,750, will play a full movie on one CD-size disc, with audio and video quality higher than a VCR's.

DVD has been on a slow, bumpy ride; the industry thought products would be ready last year.

Toshiba, for example, has promoted DVD in enthusiast magazines for a year and staged a teaser TV campaign last August. But when content wasn't ready, hardware makers had to back off.

CONTROLLED ROLLOUT

Warner Home Video will conduct a controlled rollout of films, releasing 40 titles in seven major markets. Sony's Columbia TriStar Home Video will introduce 20 to 50 titles over the next year, according to Video Business.